File:Luke2 Painter Gossart.jpg

(b. ca. 1478, Maubeuge, d. 1532, Middelburg)

St Luke Drawing the Virgin 1520-22 Oil on oak panel, 110 x 82 cm Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

The scene was a favourite subject of the late Gothic German and Netherlandish masters. This painting, one of the greatest by Gossart, is a departure from traditional Netherlandish representation of the subject. It was inspired by Italian art and reformulated in Gossart's manner. The setting is a Renaissance hall decorated with grotesque pilasters bearing classical medallions copied from Roman coinage. In the background there is a tempietto adorned with the statue of Moses. St Luke, kneeling at a prie-dieu, makes a metalpoint drawing of the Virgin, appearing in a vision before him. He is guided by the hand of an angel.

A number of Italian sources have been suggested in the literature as possible prototypes, including Raphael's <a onclick="return OpenOther('/html/r/raphael/2firenze/2/40tempi.html')" href="/html/r/raphael/2firenze/2/40tempi.html">Tempi Madonna,</a> Fra Bartolomeo's <a onclick="return OpenOther('/html/b/bartolom/fra/bernard.html')" href="/html/b/bartolom/fra/bernard.html">Vision of St Bernard,</a> and Filippino Lippi's <a onclick="return OpenOther('/html/l/lippi/flippino/carafa/2assump0.html')" href="/html/l/lippi/flippino/carafa/2assump0.html">Annunciation.</a>

Gossart painted two versions of the subject, this is the later one, the first is in Prague. A remarkable innovation of the second version is that the Madonna is not a sitter of the portrait painting, she appears as a vision of St Luke.

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Author: GOSSART, Jan Title: St Luke Drawing the Virgin Time-line: 1501-1550 School: Flemish Form: painting